Review: No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Looking for a thriller that you don't want to put down? Then you need to read No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay.

The summary from Book List on Amazon: Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge wakes up one morning to find her entire family gone. Twenty-five years later, their unexplained disappearance still haunts her. She agrees to appear on the reenactment show Deadline, hoping the TV exposure might provide her with some answers, although her husband, English teacher Terry Archer, is considerably more skeptical. Indeed, not long after the show airs, the two are shaken down by a psychic, receive a series of bizarre phone calls, and become the victims of a break-in, although nothing is taken; instead, something is left—a hat that Cynthia is convinced belonged to her father. As Cynthia's paranoia escalates, Terry's patience wears thin, and the two decide to hire a private detective. That's when the mayhem starts.

This book is definitely a page turner! Cynthia's paranoia - is it in her head? Something she's doing - maybe a split personality? What happened to her family? Are they really dead? I cannot imagine for even a second that my family would just disappear. It's not even in my ability to imagine. Knowing that, I can imagine how if that were to happen, how messed up I would be. How I really would have trust issues. And abandonment issues. And, really, all sorts of issues! (And, yes, I know I already have issues --- these are not what I am referring to!)

The book is written primarily from Terry's, Cynthia's husband, point of view. And it's easy to see he wants to believe her and yet also easy to believe that maybe she's finally cracking up after 25 years. The characters are quite real, flawed, and I could imagine all of them in my town. I felt myself rooting for Cynthia not to be crazy, but boy howdy! I probably would have had her committed! LOL

I read this book all today. It was a perfect day for reading and the perfect book as I didn't want to put it down. I highly recommend this thriller.

Rating: 5/5 stars